Cassie Miller began writing stories many years ago and has always enjoyed escaping into the worlds she has created or into those created by authors she has cherished.
After graduating from Radford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English, Cassie taught high school English and Creative Writing for twelve years. While helping her students develop their own voices on the page, Cassie began working on her own projects which would later connect her with her agent in 2018.
During the querying and submission process, Cassie rekindled her love with children’s literature and went back to school to earn her endorsement in Library Media Studies from the University of Virginia and UVaWise. In 2019, she started a new position as an elementary school librarian where she still works full-time today.
Cassie is happily married to a high school band director, and she and her husband are the proud parents to two, super creative boys. She loves living in the mountains of Southwest Virginia in a home constantly filled with music, good food, and laughter.
“Meet Me Under the Lights” is described as a small-town baseball romance set in a town that loves tradition and baseball. What inspired you to combine a high-school theater-themed summer with a baseball rivalry – and how do those two very different worlds shape the tone of the book?
I knew I wanted to write a YA dual point of view story about two main characters who come from very different families but who are both put in high stress situations. I have been an avid baseball fan my entire life, so when I asked myself who on a baseball team would have the highest amount of stress / pressure, a pitcher was the first position that came to mind.
Likewise, I took a similar approach to writing about theater. I have a lot of experience with the technical side of theater, and one thing I’ve noticed is that we often see theater represented or spoken about by means of the principal actor and not those who work, in my opinion, equally as hard backstage. I sought out to write a character who has no desire to be “center stage” in the theater world because she already is in her small town. The technical side of theater is a vital part to any production as any thespian will tell you.
Reed is directly under the spotlight as an ace pitcher during a tournament that could determine his future as an athlete. Eliza is the sole lighting designer for an esteemed summer theater troupe, and likewise, her performance and choices in the light booth may also affect her future opportunities in the theater world.
Although they are entirely different “settings” within the town of Fairfield, both create a high-stakes, winner-takes-all tone throughout the book. Add in the unexpected romance between the two main characters, and suddenly both characters have a lot more to lose.
Your heroine, Eliza Crowley, wants to escape her “rich girl” reputation by immersing herself in community theater and pursuing her dream of being a lighting designer – rather than embracing the town’s sports legacy. What does Eliza’s struggle tell us about identity, family expectations, and following unconventional dreams?
I want my readers, especially my teen readers, to be inspired by Eliza’s grit and determination as she chooses to not follow in her family’s footsteps. All too often, I hear stories of someone putting aside their dreams to fulfill a family expectation or request, and while a part of me can find that honorable, a part of me also hurts for that person. Eliza is a child who comes from a very privileged family, and she doesn’t quite see that until she spends more and more time with Reed. With that realization, she begins to understand that it’s not only okay for her to form different opinions and have different dreams than her Crowley family, but that it’s also necessary in her growth as a human being. The biggest takeaway I hope my readers find with Eliza and Reed is that you can absolutely be your own person and “break away” while still paying homage to your roots.
The novel sets up a classic “rival families / enemies-to-lovers” dynamic between Eliza and Reed, against a backdrop of long-standing family tension. What draws you to that trope, and how do you try to make it feel fresh and real in this story?
Fun fact: I wrote a prologue for this story years ago in iambic pentameter to mirror the one Shakespeare used in Romeo & Juliet. It allowed me to develop the history behind the Crowley / Fulton feud and forced me to condense it into something that could be easily digested later on the page. Enemies to lovers has always been a favorite trope of mine because of the passion and tension that comes with the unexpected love a character initially rejects but eventually accepts for their enemy. What I think sets apart my story compared to a lot of others with that same trope, though, is the fact that my two families are very different in regards to class, ie. wealth/privilege.The dwindling appreciation of the blue collar workers like the Fulton farmers versus the “old money” families like the Crowleys not only make this story relatable but, I hope, poignant to readers.
As a former teacher and current school-librarian with a background in English and creative writing, how have your experiences working with teens informed the way you write your young adult characters in “Meet Me Under the Lights”?
My time in the high school classroom, my work with high schoolers on the stage, and my life as a mom of a teenager and a tween have all impacted me greatly in my understanding of teens. I feel like I am constantly surrounded by teen and tween voices– more so than adult ones! –so it has always come pretty naturally to me to write for those voices. Reading YA and MG books with my current full-time job as a librarian has also been a huge help with developing the voice for my characters. I think anyone who writes for a younger audience really needs to immerse themselves in that audience in every facet possible in order to “get them.”
This is your debut with “Meet Me Under the Lights.” What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing and publishing your first full-length YA romance – and what are you most proud of accomplishing with this book?
“Meet Me Under the Lights” had a lengthy and quite unique journey to publication that I will do my best to shorten for here. After I wrote it while teaching full time (and being a mom of two young, active boys), I queried it for several months before signing with my agent. We then polished it up even more so before sending it out on submission several months later. We received an exciting R&R (revise and resubmit) from a dream editor of mine, and I accepted that challenge because her notes were insightful and inspiring. After heavily editing the manuscript yet again, we sent it back to that editor a month before the country shut down in March of 2020. Publishing kinda froze at that point as did this book’s progress. Months turned into years, and during that time, I wrote another book and sent that out on submission. Finally, a few years later, that same editor who gave us the R&R gave us the “yes” I figured I’d never hear. Again, she and I worked hard to tighten the plot and really amp up the swoons, and I’m SO pleased with how it all turned out!
I am most proud of the sheer fact that I didn’t give up. It took me ten years to get to this spot, and I don’t know that many would wait that long for something that isn’t promised to them, but I did. I knew deep down that this book would eventually find a home so long as I believed it would. Maybe it was my prayers, or my manifesting, or just the timing of the universe–but either way, I’m extremely excited that it hits shelves in March!
INTERVIEW: YA SH3LF